Roger Caras said "Dogs are not our whole life but they make our lives whole." He was wrong. When you live with four, obedience train two, agility train two and co-own a dog boutique:(GollyGear); dogs are your life. And life is good.

Friday, November 30, 2007

It's starting to get really cold here in Chicagoland. It's to be expected at the end of November, of course, but the dogs view the changing of the seasons as a personal affront! Dax, especially, will look at us with a wounded expression when we open the door to usher the dogs out and she feels the chilly breeze (or gale-force wind as the case may be). Ceilidh at least will tolerate her coat but Dax doesn't like wearing clothes. We try to explain to her that the coat will make it feel warmer, but she just tries to scrape it off when we put it on her. Silly girl! Golly, totally opposite to her otherwise princess-like demeanor, doesn't care about the temperature. It can be 20 degrees or 80 degrees and she just doesn't care! She usually doesn't lie on the pavement in the sun when it's 20 degrees, though. Roc, typical boy, doesn't care about the weather either. There's one good thing about winter coming - the dogs are much less likely to sniff every blade of (dead) grass when it's cold out!

Whenever we get new products in the store, one of the first things we like to do is take them home, see how they fit and get some pictures of our dogs modeling them so that our customers will have some notion of what they look like in actual use.

This is much easier said than done. We got in new step-in harnesses, so last Sunday we brought home various sizes, colors, etc. to try on Golly, Ceilidh, Roc and Dax. Should be a piece of cake, right? All of them are obedience trained. Not so much. Golly is perfect, of course. But Roc is yapping. Which he does perpetually when outside. And with so many things moving (leaves, mostly) there's plenty to yap about! Just ask him!

Then there's Dax, who finds every inch of ground absolutely fascinating to sniff. When she's moving. When she's exhausted all the delightful smells, she finds a nice patch of sunshine and she sits in it - without moving.

Not moving is a problem for Ceilidh. Sitting still is almost visible agony for this girl. She'd much rather dance around on her hind legs. Which, we concede, is very cute. But not very useful in trying to get some good product shots.

Friday, November 23, 2007

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! We gave thanks for everything good in our lives - especially our little ones. The dogs love to help us in the kitchen. Mostly this consists of sleeping in the dog bed in the kitchen, or in the crate under the table. And yesterday was a prime example. We decided to do a traditional Thanksgiving dinner yesterday - turkey, dressing, cranberries, brussels sprouts (particularly appropriate, we thought, since we have Brussels Griffons!) and pie. The cooking fest began on Wednesday when I made my famous (in my own mind) chocolate pecan pie - from scratch. Many steps, very time consuming but not that hard. Then yesterday morning, while watching the Macy's parade we made the cranberry sauce first so it would have time to chill and set. Then peeling, chopping and browning 3 pounds of onions and a head of celery for the dressing. That took a while - and Roc, Dax and Golly helped all the way through. Ceilidh was sleeping in the other room, in front of the vent. (Did I mention that it was snowing yesterday morning? So much so, that I was glad we weren't travelling yesterday!) Since we would be a small group, we decided that a boneless turkey breast would be just right. This is totally cheating, but Hope and I discovered that we can't roast a turkey successfully! Oh well, I can bake bread - I don't have to roast things. Then right before dinner we whipped some cream to go on the pie and got out the mini-blender. Roc went crazy! His arch-nemesis! Worse than the vacuum! The little guy spun in circles, jumped against the cabinet while barking at the top of his lungs! The other dogs didn't know what was wrong and barked at Roc. At the top of their lungs. Noisy, tired dogs! They all dove into their well-deserved dinners!

Friday, November 16, 2007

As you may know, Hope and I share a house - we pretty much always have, being sisters. Golly has always slept with me, Roc and Dax have always slept with Hope. Ceilidh has also slept with Hope. But Hope's room gets mighty chilly in the winter and Ceilidh is "fur-challenged." So we decided that Ceilidh will sleep in my room. She loves this humongous round poofy blue bed that could fill a room on its own. I wouldn't want to deprive her of her favorite bed, so it came to my room as well. At first we put it on the side of my bed with a clear shot of the door. That didn't work, as I could only open half of my closet. There wasn't room on the other side of my bed - too much furniture. So - out goes one bed table! I'll make do. My clothes and Ceilidh are more important!

Monday, November 12, 2007

The best thing about vacation? Getting away from responsibilities and real life for a short while. The worst part? Real life is waiting to greet you the instant you get back!I have to admit, we're luckier than most - when you love what you do for a living, you never really go to "work." It's always fun to come into the shop. We love meeting dogs and their owners, love solving problems for little dogs (and their owners) and just have a good time every day. When we first started Golly Gear, I referred to the store as my "play pen" and I still feel that way. Of course, we missed our dogs horribly when we were away. I have a feeling that we're going to try to take them next time we go on vacation. It will restrict where we can go, but it will solve one chronic vacation problem for me. I never sleep well when I'm away from home. I'm firmly convinced it's because I'm totally reliant on French Bulldog snoring for a lullaby!We did have a wonderful time - the weather was in the 80s and sunny every day. Our friends at DRC are warm and welcoming, including the dolphins. We encourage everyone who's as fascinated by these amazing marine mammals as we are to go meet them at the Dolphin Research Center in Grassy Key, Florida.

Thursday, November 01, 2007

As the GollyLog's loyal readers know, I volunteered to work at the World Boxing Championships for three days. What an experience! I was able to put my very rusty Spanish to good use to help out a few boxers, and I became a much better Charades player. Since English and Spanish are the only languages I speak even marginally well, the only way I could communicate with the Russian, Czech, Polish, Ghanian, etc., etc., team members was by making some sort of motion to get the point across. Even some of the English and Welsh team members were tough to understand! No problem with the Canadians, though! The Venezuelan team manager had to shake everyone's hand when he came into the Guest Services office.The Colombian boxers were real characters - mock fighting with the guys from the Dominican Republic over computer time in the Internet Cafe. At least I think it was mock fighting...A very attractive volunteer made friends with one of the Georgian boxers, who wrote her a very sappy love note.And three boxers disappeared! One called his teammates from Canada. Three boxers from Rumania were caught shoplifting at a major department store and were sent home in disgrace - banned from amateur boxing for life. On a more uplifting note - the boxer who knocked out another during a bout wanted to make sure he was OK the following day. So, there you have it - some of the good, the bad and the ugly.

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About us

Hope and Fran are sisters and owners of GollyGear - a shop specializing in fun, affordable, and practical products especially for small dogs.

We believe that dogs are wonderful companions and their presence enriches our lives. We also know how difficult it can be to find appropriate "gear" for our small dogs, which is why we founded Golly Gear. We make it a point to discover the best products for small dogs and share them with other, devoted dog lovers.

Fran has two dogs: Tango, a 5-year-old Brussels Griffon who got off to a bit of a rough start, but is rapidly becoming a wonderful companion and agility dog, with his Masters Standard and Novice Jumpers titles, and Booker, 2-year-old Boston Terrier just starting his adventure. Hope has Teddy a 4-year-old fawn Frenchie with attitude and Open Standard and Jumpers titles; and Torque, a brand-new Frenchie baby.

Golly Gear is named for Fran's Brussels Griffon, Golly - who was a discriminating judge of all things dog throughout her life.